Dudley Dursley
Dudley Dursley is the only child of Vernon and Petunia, Marge's only nephew and Harry's only cousin. Described as a very large, blond boy (though dark-haired in the films), Dudley is generally given his way in almost everything, and shows the symptoms of a spoiled brat. Dudley is a cold-hearted bully and the leader of a gang of thugs with whom he regularly beats up Harry and younger children on the flimsiest of excuses. For this purpose, he is described early in the first novel as the reason for Harry being friendless before enrolling at Hogwarts, as even though Harry was good at sports and got good grades, he was the favorite victim of Dudley's bullying, rendering classmates too scared to admit to liking him. He is only one month older than Harry, meaning that his birthday must be sometime in late June. The same year Harry starts at Hogwarts, Dudley is enrolled at his father's old private boarding school, Smeltings. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Dudley is given a pig's tail by Rubeus Hagrid which has to be removed at a private hospital in London. In Goblet of Fire, the Smeltings school nurse advises the Dursleys to put him on a strict diet. During the summer when this diet is enforced, the Weasleys arrive at Number 4, Privet Drive to pick Harry up for the Quidditch World Cup, and Fred Weasley "accidentally" drops a Ton-Tongue Toffee, which enlarges Dudley's tongue to four feet long before his hysterical mother reluctantly allows Arthur Weasley to shrink it. In the fifth book, two Dementors attack Dudley and Harry in an alley. Dudley collapses, and Harry uses the Patronus Charm to drive a group of Dementors away from himself and his cousin. Mrs. Figg then comes running in and reveals she is a Squib by talking about Dementors. Harry and Mrs. Figg carry the shaken Dudley home, though Dudley is convinced that Harry made the dementors appear in the first place. After the confrontation, Harry wonders what sort of bad memories Dudley could have relived, as Dementors force people to relive their worst experiences. Rowling later revealed, in an on-line chat, that Dudley's worst fear was seeing himself for who he really was: a cruel, selfish, violent bully with no feelings whatsoever for others, and this revelation shocked him to the core. The experience does give Dudley a more favourable impression of Harry, as seen in Deathly Hallows, when Dudley is the only member of the family to accept Harry: he shakes his hand and thanks him for saving his soul from the Dementor attack, and shows some concern for him when the Dursleys leave to go into hiding. In his appreciation of his cousin's belated gratitude, Harry says good-bye to him using Dudley's former nickname, "Big D". In the film version, however, there is no such sentiment as Dudley leaves Harry before he can say any final words; however, on the Blu-ray/DVD release, a deleted scene includes the reconciliation between the two cousins. Rowling revealed on her website that many people have asked her to include an adult Dudley with a wizarding child in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, and that she herself considered it, but decided upon reflection that any "latent wizarding genes would never survive contact with Uncle Vernon's DNA" and thus she did not do so. Rowling says that Harry and Dudley would "stay on Christmas card" terms for the rest of their lives, and that Harry would take his family to visit Dudley's when they were in the neighbourhood, but it was something that James Sirius, Albus Severus and Lily Luna "would dread". However, Dudley's kids and Harry's occasionally would "get together while the adults sat in awkward silence". In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child it is also mentioned that adult Dudley sent Harry his baby blanket, the only surviving possession of Harry's from his parents. Dudley is portrayed by Harry Melling in the Harry Potter films. Category:Spoiled Brats Category:Child Bullies Category:Teenage Bullies Category:Male Bullies Category:Bratty Bullies Category:Bully Boys Category:Live-Action Bullies Category:Living Bullies Category:Lead Bullies Category:Movie Bullies